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80 Jews Died in Nazi Camp in July, London Paper Reports

August 10, 1938
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Eighty Jews between the ages of 21 and 70 died during July in the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald, Germany, it was reported today by the News Chronicle.

Their deaths, the paper said, was the result of inhuman treatment. Youngest of the victims was reported to be one Erich Loewenberg, 21, while the oldest was a septuagenarian named Ludwig Kahn.

According to the report, quarrying and stone breaking are the chief occupations at the Buchenwald camp. The Jewish prisoners are roused at four a.m. and forced to work until eight p.m., with two pauses of an hour each. Breaches of discipline are met with flogging, usually fifty strokes, with the whole camp lined up to watch. Usually the victim dies during the flogging, survivors dying later with but few exceptions.

The death roll, the dispatch states, is composed mostly of middle class or poor Jews. The paper’s Berlin correspondent asserts that the Gestapo (German political police) deny the figures but do not volunteer their own figures.

in an editorial commenting on the dispatch, the News Chronicle declares that even if the report were only half true, it would constitute a terrible indictment of the Nazi system. “It is sheer sadism,” the editorial states, calling for a “thorough, relentless investigation of the facts.”

Reuters (British) News Agency reports from Vienna the suicide of Dr. Rudolf Leidler nose and throat specialist.

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